De La Soul - Buhloone Mind State

The most underappreciated album in one of hip-hop's greatest catalogs, and for a devoted contingent of listeners the finest record De La Soul ever made. Released on September 21, 1993, Buhloone Mindstate is the third studio album from Posdnuos, Trugoy the Dove, and Maseo, and the last to feature production from Prince Paul, whose partnership with the group had defined their first three records. The title, a phonetic spelling of "balloon," carried its own thesis statement: as Posdnuos described it, we might blow up, but we won't go pop. The album opens with exactly that chant, and then proceeds to prove it across one of the most jazzily adventurous and lyrically dense hip-hop records of its era.

Where De La Soul Is Dead had been sprawling and deliberately chaotic, Buhloone Mindstate is focused, lean, and considerably more ambitious sonically. The group pushed deeper into jazz territory than they had on any previous release, and the collaborators they enlisted were extraordinary. Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, and Pee Wee Ellis, all formative members of James Brown's legendary backing band the JBs, appear on "Patti Dooke" alongside Gang Starr's Guru, creating one of the most genuinely stunning intersections of jazz and hip-hop the golden era ever produced. "I Be Blowin'" hands the entire track to Maceo Parker for a five-minute saxophone solo, a gesture of pure generosity and reverence toward the music's roots. "I Am I Be," featuring the same trio of jazz veterans, showcases Posdnuos at his most introspective and self-referential, a moment of vulnerability embedded in a track of gorgeous, unhurried beauty.

The album's disillusionment with the music industry runs through everything. "Eye Patch" and "Patti Dooke" are extended critiques of the mainstream's efforts to control and commodify Black music and push De La toward safer, more accessible sounds. They refused. "Ego Trippin' (Part Two)" pokes sharp fun at the gangsta and pimp personas becoming dominant in hip-hop, female MC Shortie No Mas cuts through several tracks with her own distinct energy, and "Long Island Wildin'" makes history as the first appearance of Japanese rappers on a major label hip-hop album, featuring Scha Dara Parr and Takagi Kan. Lead single "Breakadawn," sampling both Michael Jackson and Smokey Robinson over thunderous boom-bap drums, became the album's commercial anchor. The album closes with a loose, joyful Biz Markie collaboration called "Stone Age" that brings the whole record home in the most characteristically De La Soul way possible.

Rolling Stone critic Paul Evans called it more focused than the group's previous albums and more ambitious sonically, writing that it gets to something rap seldom achieves, a truly gorgeous groove. Entertainment Weekly gave it an A. Robert Christgau ranked it fifth best album of 1993. Chris Rock named it the tenth greatest hip-hop record of all time in Rolling Stone. An unduly underrated gem that carries the added weight and poignancy of Trugoy the Dove's passing in February 2023, Buhloone Mindstate stands as part of his lasting legacy and one of the essential documents of hip-hop's golden era.